The Jean Ellen Shehan Professor and Directorship was established in 1996 through a gift to the Virginia Tech Foundation from Jean Ellen Shehan, a lifelong horsewoman of international stature. Shehan chaired the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center advisory board for many years and is a niece of the center's namesake, the late Marion duPont Scott.

White's occupation of the Shehan professorship and directorship will enable the Equine Medical Center, which serves as one of three campuses operated by the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, to recruit another distinguished veterinary surgeon for the Theodora Ayer Randolph Professorship.

White joined the center as assistant director in 1985 and was named the Randolph Professor in 1987. White has had a distinguished career as a clinical teacher and researcher for more than 30 years. He has published more than 140 scientific articles, 35 book chapters, edited four books, and lectured around the world on equine gastrointestinal surgery and equine orthopedics. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Equine Science, the Compendium for Continuing Education, and the Equine Veterinary Journal.

White earned his DVM degree from Cornell University in 1971 and completed an internship and residency program in equine surgery at the University of California at Davis. He also earned a master's degree from Kansas State University. He is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS), and he has served as chairman of the Board of Regents of the ACVS and president of the ACVS Research and Education Foundation.

The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine is a two-state, three-campus professional school operated by the land-grant universities of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and the University of Maryland at College Park. Its flagship facilities, based at Virginia Tech, include the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, which treats more than 40,000 animals annually. Other campuses include the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Va., and the Avrum Gudelsky Veterinary Center at College Park, home of the Center for Government and Corporate Veterinary Medicine. The VMRCVM annually enrolls approximately 500 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and graduate students, is a leading biomedical and clinical research center, and provides professional continuing education services for veterinarians practicing throughout the two states.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities, and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg, and other campus centers in northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 170 academic degree programs.